All golf balls in use today have a dimpled surface. Most of the golf balls have from about 325 to 500 dimples. The dimples are arranged in different patterns. Thus, some golf balls have dimples in rows which are arranged parallel to the ball's equator. Other golf balls have polyhedrally based dimple patterns such as an octahedron, icosahedron, or dodecahedron with either triangular or pentagonal elements.
Taylor's U.S. Pat. No. 874,254, of Feb. 4, 1908, discloses a golf ball with rows of dimples parallel to the ball's equator. However, bald caps are found at the poles. These bald caps were later found to cause asymmetrical flight depending on the attitude or lie of the ball before flight.
Pugh's British Patent No. 377,354, of July 1932, discloses the use of polyhedral bases, either octahedral, icosahedral, or dodecahedral, for his dimple patterns as a way of achieving flight symmetry. However, it took until the 1980's to discover that flight symmetry could not be achieved with polyhedrally based dimple patterns without compensating for the asymmetry of the dimple pattern by introducing an asymmetry of dimple depth between equator and pole. This produced satisfactory flight symmetry but at the expense of lost energy caused by alternating lift as the ball backspun around any axis that was not polar.
Aoyamas's U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,160 of Dec. 24, 1985, discloses golf balls wherein the mid-points on the sides of a basic equilateral triangle of icosahedral dimple patterns were joined. This succeeded in increasing the number of dimples on the ball by a factor of four. However, the result was increased dimple asymmetry as well. This required greater change of dimple depths as between equator and poles which lead to even greater loss of flight energy when the ball backspun around any axis that was not polar.
Yamada's U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,111, Jan. 19, 1988, shows octahedrally-based dimple patterns with nested triangles within a basic equilateral triangle. Such a dimple pattern achieves the best symmetry of dimple pattern of any ball prior to the present invention.
It has been taken as axiomatic in the industry that it is impossible to achieve symmetrical dimple patterns so long as dimples are arranged in rows parallel to the equator. This, in part, has resulted from the experience with the golf balls of the type disclosed in the aforementioned Taylor patent.
It is the high trajectory of a golf ball, off a driver, that separates the amateur from the professional as any golfer can attest. The duffer loves the low trajectory ball because it gives him a better chance to stay on the fairway. His erratic swing with resultant hooks or slices will be less damaging. The pro, with his precision swing, wants the high trajectory ball that approaches the target with a sharp precise drop and less roll. It has been the desire of the less skilled golfer for a low trajectory ball that has lead over recent years to the development of golf balls with more and more dimples.